The Food Service Rant thread

So it's official my name is on the extra run board in the transit drivers office at the big warehouse. If any one is out on the road in December the day after Christmas and the week before be sure to wave I'll be in a big GFS Volume truck.

 

Yea, during the holidays the food service guys get really busy, while us LTL guys slow down. I kinda like it that way, as I'm able to catch up with friends/family a bit more. But it's also nice that you guys have some more $$$ in your pocket during the holidays!

 

In my normal day to day life and in pretty much any other part of my life I have zero contact at all with children. I have none of my own, nobody in my family has any kids I have no nieces and no nephews, which is fine. However I do deliver to a lot of schools this past Thursday I was up in the trailer tossing some miss placed thing aside (typical) any how our metal ramps hook on to the back of the trailer and we run down the ramp to get everything into wherever we are delivering.

So last week I'm in the trailer fighting my load thank God the trailer was packed semi decent and the load didn't put up to much of a fight. Anyhow I was wrestling a box of potato chips and I hear this little voice go "That doesn't look very safe." I look down and out through the trailer door and I see the cutest little blonde haired girl probably in 3rd grade just standing there she just looked up at me and when we made eye contact she just giggled and then ran off on her way. I guess it's not all gloom and doom here on the food service line. Darn kids they just have a way of melting you're heart.

 

So this week I guess I hope it continues, but will see I've been in a well new truck that's new to me kind of. My old International is back at the shop they called it in for a PM good they can keep it as far as I'm concerned. One of our drivers quit a week or two ago and I've been driving his truck which is like going from a Yugo to a Cadillac. I love this 2007 Volvo the bumper might be a little rusty, but the rest of the truck is as clean as a whistle and it is night and day difference from that Corn-binder I was driving. I'm the only driver at the yard who drives a Corn-Binder as my regular truck.

Everyone else has Volvo's any time I get to drive a Volvo it's a real treat. This truck here has been great rides some much better, cab is nice and clean, many more fancy display and control options cruise control and the like night and day difference. More responsive steering, over all Volvo's a probably at the higher end of the spectrum as far as fleet trucks go and this one's a good one. It's got almost half a million miles on it, but it's been taken care of real good, because it runs well good breaks new tires all the way around clean inside and out. Nice truck good ride I like it!

 

We've got Volvos with over 1 million miles on em' and they still ride like a dream. Then we got ProStars with less than 200,000 miles and you will need a chiropractor after bouncing up and down in those things all the livelong day. That is, if they'e even running...they're constantly breaking down, throwing codes, smoking like a tar kettle, etc.

Best part about Volvos is that they conform to European safety standards which are stricter than the US. Volvos are not cheap trucks, but worth every penny imho.

 

Amen to that, my Cornbinder came back from the shop today. I saw it sitting in the lot and a tear went down my cheek. They put new skins on it, which it desperately needed. I climbed into the cab and took a look around I'll have to spend some time cleaning the cab it's filthy, but the design of the cab isn't nearly as good as the Volvo cabs the Volvo's are so much more spacious and night and day better design as far as controls ergonomics, not that the International is uncomfortable or awful, but the Volvo has way more room I have room for my jug and my Cooler box which I carry my flash light, telephone number list, map, GPS and some other odds and ends in like mints and stuff. Sometimes I get hungry and like to chew on a mint or two. However the Volvo has a lot of room on the floor in between the seats. The International not so much I mean it works, but the cab is tinier. Also International's ride like Model-T's with wooden wheels at times.

Although our companies older Internationals were a tad on the throatier side when they were new, but now that they all have like 400,000+ miles on them they have seemed to have lost there get up and go and are just tired. I pulled a big hill in a Volvo with half a million miles on it and it did 100xs better up the hill I was like "Oh wow this was better then I thought." And I know Volvo's don't have a reputation for being the best pulling trucks around.

 

MBM out of Columbus, Ohio seems to have all 3 Volvo, Freightliner and International. I saw an MBM truck at a Dennys Wednesday making a delivery and well it was an MBM trailer with a Ryder rental tractor. I'm guessing the MBM marked truck broke down and Ryder had to get a rental from the yard. Or it was an auxiliary rental.

The beer company I used to work for leased trucks from Penske and AIM and we had trucks that were ours, but they didn't have our companies name on them they just had the rental name on the door.

Usually on Friday I seen an MBM Volvo day cab unloading at Olive Garden. I can't say Ive ever seen an MBM Volvo sleeper. Usually when I see an MBM sleeper it's a Freightliner.

 

mbm guy I come across on my route drives a volvo sleeper. Most others around this area are penske or Ryder daycabs.

Speaking of cool hats, the gfs guy at one of my stops gave the chef a really nice black embroidered old school logo hat, and it had an embroidered gfs truck on the brim. Looked really sharp, I offered to trade him a watermelon for one but didn't have any more of course